Bonds hammers No. 707 in a win

Roundup

Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2005

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Barry Bonds homered for the fourth consecutive game to raise his career total to 707, and San Francisco starter Brad Hennessey hit a solo shot while winning for the first time in 10 outings, leading the Giants past the Washington Nationals 5-1 Wednesday night.

The Giants have won five straight to hold onto an outside chance of catching the NL West-leading San Diego Padres, who began the day with a five-game lead.

For Washington, it was a fourth straight loss, and manager Frank Robinson spoke before the game of wanting to avoid a last-place finish. Looking ahead to Thursday, the one bit of good news for the Nationals? Bonds probably won't start because it's an afternoon game.

San Francisco's surge has coincided with last week's return of Bonds, who missed most of 2005 following three knee operations. The team is 6-1 in his starts, and Bonds is hitting .318 (7-for-22) with four homers and six RBIs.

There were fewer boos and disparaging signs directed Bonds' way Wednesday than Tuesday, his first road game of the year. But he still heard plenty of jeers, including when he caught Brad Wilkerson's shallow fly leading off the bottom of the first.

Bonds connected for a two-run homer in the first inning on a 1-1 pitch from John Patterson (9-6), sending it into the visitors' bullpen beyond right field. The ball traveled in the same direction, though not as high or far, as the upper-deck homer Bonds hit off Livan Hernandez in the fourth inning Tuesday.

It wasn't all that surprising that Bonds would turn on an inside pitch; he is, after all, now just eight homers from passing Babe Ruth (714) for second on the career list behind Hank Aaron's 755.

More stunning: Hennessey turning on Patterson's first pitch of the seventh and depositing it in the left-field bullpen to make the score 5-1.

It was Hennessey's second homer - only two other pitchers have that many this season - and the other came July 28 at Milwaukee. That was also the last time the right-hander earned a victory.

Since then, he had been 0-5 with a 5.55 ERA. But, continuing a trend of Washington's poor hitting against mediocre pitching, Hennessey (5-8) gave up one run and three hits over 72/3 innings, striking out four.

He retired 15 straight batters until walking Wilkerson with two outs in the eighth, then was replaced by Scott Eyre.

Armando Benitez got two outs for his 18th save in 22 tries, striking out both batters he faced.

Hennessey allowed Cristian Guzman's RBI infield single in the second, and that was it. He got some nice help in the field, including shortstop Omar Vizquel's turn-and-throw from the hole to get Preston Wilson in the fourth, and two sliding catches by Randy Winn in center. Hennessey made a nice behind-the-back stab on Vinny Castilla's comebacker in the fourth.

 Cardinals 5, Reds 1: At Cincinnati, Jason Marquis pitched seven solid innings and homers by David Eckstein and So Taguchi powered St. Louis Cardinals to its 96th victory.

The Cardinals clinched the NL Central title over the weekend, giving themselves two weeks to get ready for the playoffs and another shot at the World Series.

The Reds' 81st loss eliminated them from wild-card contention and guaranteed a fifth straight season without a winning record, their longest such stretch since 1945-55.

 Astros 12, Pirates 8: At Pittsburgh, Lance Berkman hit his 20th homer and drove in five runs as Houston built an 8-0 lead and then held off Pittsburgh.

It was the seventh win in eight games for Houston, which is two games ahead of Philadelphia in the NL wild-card race. The Astros moved 14 games over .500 (83-69) for the first time this season.

Roy Oswalt (18-12) allowed four runs, three earned, and nine hits over six innings to win for the fourth time in five decisions. Kip Wells (7-17) became the first pitcher in the majors to lose 17 games this season.

American League

Yankees 2, Orioles 1: At New York, Randy Johnson was his old self, glaring and pointing. The Big Unit not only made it into the late innings, he pitched the New York Yankees into first place.

Johnson limited the Baltimore Orioles to three hits over eight innings in his first start since a second-inning ejection last week, and Matt Lawton broke out of a long slump with a two-run homer that carried the Yankees to a victory.

New York, which won for the ninth time in 10 games, took over the AL East lead by a half-game over Boston, which lost at Tampa Bay.

Johnson (15-8) didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning and didn't give up a run until the sixth.

 Devil Rays 7, Red Sox 4: At St. Petersburg, Fla., Tampa Bay rallied for five runs in the eighth inning to knock defending world champion Boston out of first place in the AL East.

Cuddyer finished with a career-high four hits. After his solo homer in the second inning, he followed with three doubles for his third career four-RBI game. Matthew LeCroy added three hits and two RBIs for Minnesota, which had lost five of six.

The Twins tagged Joe Kennedy (3-4) in taking a 7-0 lead in the fifth, and avoided a three-game sweep.

 Royals 4, Tigers 3: At Kansas City, Mo., pinch-hitter Denny Hocking's two-out, two-run single in the ninth inning gave Kansas City its first four-game sweep in six years.

The Royals again avoided becoming the first team in the majors with 100 losses this season. Detroit dropped its seventh in a row despite an impressive home run by Chris Shelton that bounced off an SUV.